A new rule awaiting approval by the 2009 Idaho Legislature would allow Agrium Inc., the J.R. Simplot Co., and Monsanto to mine phosphate without being forced to restore groundwater beneath their operations to its natural condition. The rule is backed by the phosphate processing industry but opposed by environmental groups such as the Greater Yellowstone Coalition and Idaho Conservation League, who say it gives mining companies near the Idaho-Wyoming border license to pollute indefinitely.
It stops short of a 2007 draft pro-mining proposal developed by the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality (IDEQ) that was never formalized. The proposal would have required companies to clean up groundwater below their mines within eight years of ceasing activities.
According to the new rule, companies could pollute groundwater below their extraction, tailing, and reclamation activities with high concentrations of naturally occurring elements such as selenium. They would be required to monitor groundwater at “points of compliance” as close as possible to the mining area to ensure the pollution didn’t migrate off site.
Jack Lyman, an Idaho Mining Association lobbyist, said the new rule would protect groundwater outside mining areas without burdening companies planning to expand existing mines or build new ones with unrealistic clean-up requirements.
Efforts to revise Idaho’s 16-year-old Groundwater Quality Plan began in 2007 after IDEQ, the mining industry, and environmentalists agreed the exemption allowing mines to pollute groundwater in some instances was vague. Environmentalists said the ambiguity made it easier for companies to pollute. Mining companies feared uncertainty over cleanup requirements could stifle new projects.
After more than a year of negotiations, the proposed rule was approved by the IDEQ board earlier in 2008. It will be taken up by the 2009 Legislature when the session starts Monday, Jan. 12. Such rules are rarely rejected, especially after securing board support.
Justin Hayes of the Idaho Conservation League said IDEQ caved to industry pressure. Environmental groups fear mining pollution in Eastern Idaho, especially after at least four horses and hundreds of sheep died in the late 1990s from drinking selenium-tainted water from defunct phosphate mines and their waste piles near Soda Springs. Hayes said groundwater does not stay stationary by its very nature, noting an aquifer is recharged by rain and snow water, then moves elsewhere.
Lyman said environmentalists exaggerate the danger of migrating mining pollution. He compared open-pit phosphate mines to a septic tank at his home. He said he’s never worried that what goes down his sink drain will show up a quarter mile away on his neighbor’s property, adding that because groundwater below a mine is polluted does not mean it will flow into Soda Springs.